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This was the main work, and was called Fort Cornwallis. A little less than half a mile westward of Fort Cornwallis, was a swampy ravine extending up from the river, with a stream running through it. On the western margin of this lagoon, between the present Upper Market and the river, was a smaller work called Fort Grierson, so named in honor of the militia colonel who commanded its garrison.
About the first of September,1780Colonel Elijah Clark, a brave partisan of Wilkes county, Georgia, and Lieutenant-colonel M'Call, made efforts to raise a sufficient force to capture the fort at Augusta, and drive the British from the interior of the state to the sea-coast. These were the brave partisans who fought at the Cowpens a few months later. Clark recruited in his own county, and M'Call went to the district of Ninety-Six and applied to Colonel Pickens for aid. He wanted five hundred men, but procured only eighty. With these he marched to Soap Creek, forty miles northwest of Augusta, where he was joined by Clark, with three hundred and fifty men. With this inadequate force they marched toward Augusta. So secret and rapid were their movements, that they reached the outposts before the garrison was apprised of their approach.Sep. 14, 1780The right was commanded by M'Call, the left by Major Samuel Taylor, and the center by Clark. The divisions approached the town separately. Near Hawk's Creek, on the west, Taylor fell in with an Indian camp, and a skirmish ensued. The Indians retreated toward the town, and Taylor pressed forward to get possession of a strong trading station called the
* Brown's authority was a letter which Cornwallis had sent to the commanders of all the British outposts, ordering that all those who had "taken part in the revolt should be punished with the utmost rigor; and also that those who would not turn out should be imprisoned, and their whole property taken from them or destroyed." Every militia-man who had borne arms in the king's service, and afterward joined the Whigs, was to be "immediately hanged." This letter was a foul stain upon the character of Cornwallis. It was a "lash of scorpions" in the hands of cruel men like Brown. "Officers, soldiers, and citizens," says M'Call (ii., 319), were brought up to the place of execution, without being informed why they had been taken out of prison. The next morning after this sanguinary order reached Augusta, five victims were taken from the jail by order of Colonel Brown, who all expired on the gibbet.
** Fort Cornwallis occupied the ground in the rear of the Episcopal church, now a grave-yard. This view is from within the inclosure, looking northeast, and includes a portion of Schultz's bridge, the Savannah River, and Hamburg upon the opposite bank. In the foreground is seen portions of the church-yard wall, and upon the brink of the river below are negroes employed in placing bales of cotton upon the wharves for transportation, to the sea-coast. The wharves are two stories in height, one to be used at low water, the other when the river is "up." There were remains of the ditch and embankments of the fort within the grave-yard when I was there; and the trench leading to the water-gate, where the "Pride-of-India" tree is seen, was very visible.
Skirmish at the White House.—Brown wounded.—Defeat of the Americans. Fate of Prisoners.
White House, a mile and a half west of the town. The Indians reached it first, and were joined by a company of King's Rangers, under Captain Johnson. Ignorant of the approach of other parties, Brown and Grierson went to the aid of Johnson and the Indians. While absent, the few men left in garrison were surprised by Clark and M'Call, and Forts Cornwallis and Grierson fell into their hands. A guard was left to take charge of the prisoners and effects in the fort, and Clark, with the remainder, hastened to the assistance of Taylor. Brown and Grierson, perceiving their peril, took shelter in theWhite House. The Americans tried in vain to dislodge them. A desultory fire was kept up from eleven o'clock in the morning until dark, when hostilities ceased. During the night the besieged cast up a slight breast-work around the house, made loop-holes in the building for musketry, and thus materially strengthened their position. Early in the morning,Sept. 15Clark ordered field-pieces to be brought from Grierson's redoubt, to be placed in a position to cannonade theWhite House. They were of little service, for Captain Martin, of South Carolina, the only artillerist among the besiegers, was killed soon after the pieces were brought to bear upon the building.
No impression was made upon the enemy during the fifteenth. On that morning, before daylight, the Americans drove a body of Indians from the river bank, and thus cut off the supply of water for those in the house. Colonel Brown and others had been severely wounded, and now suffered great agony from thirst. On the night of the fifteenth, fifty Cherokee Indians, well armed, crossed the river to re-enforce Brown, but were soon repulsed. Little was done on the sixteenth, and on the seventeenth Clark summoned Brown to surrender. He promptly refused; for, having sent a messenger to Colonel Cruger at Ninety-Six, on the morning when the Americans appeared before Augusta, Brown confidently expected relief from that quarter. Nor was he disappointed. On the night of the seventeenth, Clark's scouts informed him of the approach of Colonel Cruger with five hundred British regulars and Loyalists, and on the morning of the eighteenth this force appeared upon the opposite side of the river. Clark's little army was greatly diminished by the loss of men who had been killed and wounded, and the desertion of many with plunder found in the forts. At ten o'clock he raised the siege, and departed toward the mountains. The American loss on this occasion was about sixty killed and wounded; that of the British is not known. Twenty of the Indians were killed. Captain Ashby and twenty-eight others were made prisoners. Upon these Brown and his Indian allies glutted their thirst for revenge. Captain Ashby and twelve of the wounded were hanged upon the stair-way of theWhite House, so that the commandant might have the satisfaction of seeing their sufferings. Others were given up to the Indians to torture, scalp, and slay. Terrible were the demoniac acts at Augusta on that beautiful autumnal day, when the white and the red savage contended for the meed of cruelty!
The British remained in possession of Augusta until the spring and summer of 1781, when their repose was disturbed. After the battle at Guilford Court House, and when the determination of Greene to march into South Carolina was made known, Clark and M'Call proceeded to co-operate with him by annoying the British posts in Georgia. M'Call soon afterward died of the small-pox, and Clark suffered from the same disease. After his recovery, he, with several other partisans, were actively engaged at various points between Savannah and Augusta, and had frequent skirmishes with the British and Tory scouts. In an engagement near Coosawhatchie, in Beaufort District, South Carolina, where Colonel Brown then commanded, the Americans were defeated; and several who were taken prisoners were hanged, and their bodies given to the Indians to scalp and otherwise, mutilate. *
* Among the prisoners taken on this occasion was a young man named M'Koy, the son of a widow, who, with her family, had fled from Darien, in Georgia, into South Carolina. She went to Brown and implored the life of her son, who was only seventeen years of age. The miscreant's heart was unmoved, and the lad was not only hanged, but his body was delivered to the Indians to mutilate by scalping and otherwise. All this occurred in the presence of the mother. Afterward, when Brown, as a prisoner, passed where Mrs. M'Koy resided, she called to his remembrance his cruelty, and said, "As you are now a prisoner to the leaders of my country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts of revenge, but if you resume your sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satisfaction at the point of it for the murder of my son.—See M'Call's Georgia, ii., 365; Garden's Anecdotes.
Siege of Augusta.—Colonel Pickens.
This was Brown's common practice, and made his name as hateful at the South as that of "Bloody Bill Cunningham."
On the sixteenth of April,1781the Georgia militia, under Colonels Williams, Baker, and Hammond, Major James Jackson (afterward governor of the state), and other officers, assembled near Augusta, and placed the garrison in a state of siege. Williams, who had the general command during Clark's sickness, encamped within twelve hundred yards of Forts Cornwallis and Grierson, and fortified his camp.
8727
Colonel Brown, who was again in command at Augusta, deceived respecting the numbers did not attack them; and in this position the respective forces remained until the middle of May, when Clark came with one hundred new recruits and resumed the command. About that time, Major Dill approached Augusta with a party of Loyalists to force the Americans to raise the siege.
A detachment of Carolina mountaineers and Georgians, under Shelby and Carr, sent by Clark, met them at Walker's bridge, on Brier Creek, killed and wounded several.
Pickens could not immediately comply, for the Indians having recommenced hostilities on the frontiers of Georgia and Carolina, he had sent part of his force in that direction. Perceiving the importance of seizing Augusta, Pickens informed Greene of the situation of affairs there. That general, then advancing upon Ninety-Six, immediately ordered Lientenant-colonel Lee, with his legion, to join Pickens and Clark in besieging Augusta. The rapid march of Lee, the capture of Fort Galphin and its stores, and his arrival at Augusta, have been noticed on page 691.
The capture of Fort GalphinMay 21, 1781was an important prelude to the siege of Augusta. Other little successes made the Americans at Augusta feel so strong that Clark determined to attempt an assault. An old iron five pounder, which he had picked up, was mounted within four hundred yards of Fort Grierson, and other dispositions for an attack were made. Powder was scarce, and he sent a message to Colonel Pickens,* who was maneuvering between Augusta and Fort Ninety-Six, asking for a supply.
* Andrew Pickens was born in Paxton township, Pennsylvania, on the nineteenth of September, 1739. His parents were from Ireland. In 1752, he removed, with his father, to the Waxhaw settlement, in South Carolina. He served as a volunteer in Grant's expedition against the Cherokees, in which he took his first lessons in the art of war. He beeame a warm Republican when the Revolution broke out, and, as we have seen in preceding pages of this work, he was one of the most active of the military partisans of the South. From the close of the war until 1794, he was a member of the South Carolina Legislature, when he was elected to a seat in Congress. He was commissioned major general of the South Carolina militia in 1795, and was often a commissioner to treat with the Indians. President Washington offered him a brigade of light troops under General Wayne, to serve against the Indians in the northwest, but he declined the honor. He died at his seal in Pendleton District, South Carolina—the scene of his earliest battles—on the seventeenth of August, 1817, at the age of seventy-eight years. His remains lie by the side of his wife (who died two years before), in the grave-yard of the "Old Stone Meeting-house" in Pendleton. In 1765, he married Rebecca Calhoun, aunt of the late John C. Calhoun, one of the most beautiful young ladies of the South. Mrs. Ellet, in her Women of the Revolution (iii., 302), gives some interesting sketches of this lady and her life during the Revolution. Her relatives and friends were very numerous, and her marriage was attended by a great number. "Rebecca Calhoun's wedding" was an epoch in the social history of the district in which she resided, and old people used it as a point to reckon from.
Junction of American Troops before Augusta.—Plan of Attack.—Maykam Tower.—The Garrison subdued.
Colonel Brown was deprived of a considerable body of reserved troops and of valuable stores.
9728
The latter were of great importance to Greene, then approaching Ninety-Six. After the capture of this redoubt, Lee allowed his troops to repose a few hours, and then ordered Major Eggleston, with Captains O'Neal and Armstrong, to cross the Savannah with the cavalry, a little below Augusta, and join Pickens and Clark. On the same evening, Lee, with the field-piece of Captain Finley, crossed the river, and on the morning of the twenty-third joined the besiegers.
Eggleston, on his arrival, summoned Brown to surrender, at the same time informing him of the approach of a strong force from General Greene's army. Brown did not credit the information, treated the flag with contempt, and declined giving a written answer. Lee had now arrived, and an immediate assault on Fort Grierson was determined upon. The first measure attempted was to cut off his retreat to Fort Cornwallis. Pickens and Clark were to attack Fort Grierson on the northwest, with the militia; Major Eaton's battalions and some Georgia militia, under Major Jackson, were to pass down the river and attack it on the northeast; while Lee, with his infantry, took a position south of the fort, so as to support Eaton, or check Brown if he should make a sortie in favor of Grierson. In the skirt of the woods south of Lee, Eggleston, with the cavalry, was stationed. When Brown discovered the peril of Grierson, he made a sortie with two field-pieces, but was soon checked by Lee. Grierson, at the same time, endeavored to evacuate his redoubt, and attempt to throw his command into Fort Cornwallis. Passing down the ravine on the margin of the lagoon, some of the garrison effected their purpose; but thirty of them were slain, and forty five were wounded and taken prisoners. Grierson was captured, but was instantly killed by a Georgia rifleman, who, on account of cruelties inflicted upon his family by his victim, could not be restrained from dealing a blow of vengeance. * In this assault Major Eaton was slain.
The Americans now turned their attention to Fort Cornwallis. They were without artillery, except the old iron piece in possession of Clark, and Finley's grasshopper; and their rifles had but little effect upon the fort. Lee suggested the erection of a Mayham tower, which was used so efficiently at Fort Watson and Ninety-Six. This was done, under cover of an old frame house which stood directly in front of the present Episcopal church. This procedure made Brown uneasy, and on the night of the twenty-eighth he sent out a detachment to drive the Americans from their labor. After a severe skirmish, the enemy were driven into the fort at the point of the bayonet. On the succeeding night, a similar attempt was made, with the same result. The tower was completed on the first of June, and for its destruction Brown used every effort in his power. Sallies were made under cover of night, and some severe conflicts ensued. He tried stratagem, ** and failed in that.
On the thirty-first of May, Brown was summoned to surrender. He refused, and that night a six pounder, brought from Fort Grierson, was placed in battery on the tower. Toward noon, riflemen stationed upon it opened a galling fire upon the garrison, which was continued throughout the day. The guns were soon unmanned by the rifle balls, and the six pounder dismounted them. The garrison dug vaults within the fort to save themselves from the murderous fire of the assailants, and thus the siege went on until the morning of the fourth,June, 1781when a general assault was agreed upon. While the Americans were forming tor attack, Brown, perceiving the maintenance ot his post to be im-
* This rifleman was Captain Samuel Alexander, whose aged father had been a prisoner in Fort Cornwallis for some time, and was cruelly treated by both Brown and Grierson. The son was the deliverer of his father soon after he dispatched Grierson.
** Brown opened a communication with a house in front of the tower, and placed a quantity of powder in it. He then sent a Scotchman, under the cloak of a deserter, who advised the Americans to burn that old house, as it stood in their way. Had they done so, the explosion of the powder might have destroyed the tower. Lee suspected the man, and had him confined. Brown finally applied a slow match and blew up the house, but the tower was unharmed.
Surrender of the Forts at Augusta.—Liberty Hill.—Departure for Savannah.—A Night Journey.
possible, sent out a flag and offered to make a conditional surrender to Pickens and Lee. The day was spent in negotiations, and early the next morning the fort was surrendered to Captain Rudulph, who was appointed to take possession. The garrison marched out and laid down their arms, and Brown and his fellow-prisoners were paroled to Savannah under a sufficient guard, who marched down the river on the Carolina side. * Pickins and Lee soon hastened to the aid of Greene, then investing Ninety-Six. In this siege of Augusta, the Americans had sixteen killed and thirty-five wounded; seven of them mortally. The loss of the British was fifty-two killed: and three hundred and thirty-four, including the wounded, were made prisoners of war. ** The British never had possession of Augusta after this event.
Let us close the chronicle for a while.
It was toward noon when we descended Liberty Hill, looked in upon the slave-market at Hamburg (the first and last I ever saw), and crossed Shultz's bridge to Augusta. After dinner I visited the site of Fort Cornwallis, and made the sketch on page 715; also the site of Fort Grierson, of which no vestiges remain. The rivulet is still there, and the marshy lagoon on the brink of the river; but the "gulley" mentioned in the local histories was filled, and houses and gardens covered the site of the redoubt and its ravelins. At the office of the mayor, I saw (and was permitted to copy) a sketch of the proposed monument to be erected in the middle of the broad and beautifully shaded Greene Street, directly in front of the City Hall, in honor of the Georgia Signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is to be a granite obelisk, forty-five feet in height, composed of square blocks of stone. The base of the obelisk will be six feet eight inches square at the bottom, and gradually tapered to the top. It will rest upon a base twelve feet eight inches square, elevated two feet above the ground. The corner-stone is already laid, and it is to be hoped that another will soon be added to the few monuments already erected to the memory of Revolutionary patriots.
I left Augusta on the evening of the twenty-fifthJan. 1849with real regret, for the beauty of the city, ornamented with water-oaks, wild olives, holly, palmettoes, magnolias, and other evergreens; the gardens blooming; the orange-trees budding in the bland air, and the courtesy of the citizens whom I met, wooed me to a longer tarry. But "home, sweet home," beckoned me away, and at eight o'clock I entered a mail-coach, with a single fellow-passenger, for a ride of fifty-two miles to the "Ninety-mile Station," on the Great Central Railway. I had a pleasant companion while he kept awake, and we whiled away the tedious night hours by agreeable conversation until we reached Waynesborough, *** where we exchanged horses and the mails. After leaving the village, I endeavored to sleep. My companion complained that he never could slumber in a coach; and I presume his loud snoring always keeps him awake, for in ten minutes after leaving the post-office his nasal pipes were chanting bass to the alto of the coach-wheels.
We breakfasted at sunrise at a log-house in the forest, and arrived at the rail-way, on the upper border of Severn county, near the banks of the Great Ogeeche, at eleven o'clock, where we dined, and at one departed for Savannah. Swamps, plantations, and forests, with scarcely a hill, or even an undulation, compose the monotonous scenery. While enjoying the pleasing anticipation of an early arrival in Savannah, our locomotive became disabled by the breaking of a piston-rod. We were yet forty miles from our goal, in the midst of a vast swamp, ten miles from any habitation, near the road. The sun went down; the twilight faded away, and yet we were immovable. At intervals the engineer managed to start his steed and travel a short distance, and then stop. Thus we crawled along, and at eleven
* The brother of young M'Koy, who was hanged and scalped by Brown's orders, and who, thirsting for revenge, had joined Clark before Augusta, endeavored to kill Brown, but was prevented by the guard. It was during this march to Savannah, when at Silver Bluff, that Brown encountered Mrs. M'Koy, as related on page 716.
** M'Call, ii., 370; Lee, 238; Ramsay, ii., 238.
*** Waynesborough is the capital of Burke county. It is upon a branch of Brier Creek, about thirty-five miles above the place of General Ashe's defeat.
Detention in a Swamp.—Picturesque Scenery.—Savannah.—Greene and Pulaski Monument
o'clock at night we reached the thirty mile station, where we supped at the expense of the rail way company. At our haltings we started light-wood fires, whose blaze amid the tall trees draped with moss, the green cane-brakes, and the dry oases, garnished with dwarf palmettoes, produced the most picturesque effects.
8730
A hand-car was sent down to Savannah for another engine, and at six o'clock in the morning we entered that city. I breakfasted at thePulaski House, a large building fronting upon Johnson Square, amid whose noble trees stands a monument erected by the citizens of Savannah to the memory of General Greene and the Count Pulaski. *
Savannah is pleasantly situated upon a sand-bluff, some forty feet above low-water-mark, sloping toward swamps and savannahs, at a lower altitude in the interior. It is upon the south side of the river, about eighteen miles from the ocean. The city is laid out in rectangles, and has ten public squares. The streets are generally broad and well shaded, some of them with four rows of Pride-of-India trees, which, in summer, add greatly to the beauty of the city and comfort of the inhabitants. With interest in Savannah and suburbs, let us open the interesting pages of its history, and note their teachings respecting Georgia in general, and of the capital in particular, whose foundations were laid by General Oglethorpe.
We have already considered the events which led to the settlement of the Carolinas, within whose charter limits Georgia was originally included, and we will here refer only to the single circumstance connected with the earlier efforts at settlement, which some believe to be well authenticated, namely, that Sir Walter Raleigh, when on his way to the Orinoco, in South America, entered the Savannah River, and upon the bluff where the city now stands stood and talked with the Indian king. ** There are reasonable doubts of the truth of this statement.
As late as 1730, the territory lying between the Savannah and Alatamaha Rivers was entirely uninhabited by white people. On the south the Spaniards held possession, and on the west the French had Louisiana, while the region under consideration, partially filled with powerful Indian tribes, was claimed by Great Britain. To prevent France and Spain from occupying it (for the latter already began to claim territory even north of the Savannah), and as a protection to the Carolina planters against the encroachments of their hostile neighbors, various schemes of emigration thither were proposed, but without being effected. Finally, in 1729, General James Oglethorpe, a valorous soldier and humane Christian, then a member of Parliament, made a proposition in that body for the founding of a colony to be composed of poor persons who were confined for debt and minor offenses in the prisons
* In March, 1825, at a meeting of the citizens of Savannah, it was determined to take the occasion of the expected visit of General La Fayette to that city to lay the corner-stones of two monuments, one to the memory of Greene, in Johnson Square; the other in memory of Pulaski, in Chippewa Square. These corner-stones were accordingly laid by La Fayette on the twenty-first of March, 1825. Some donations were made; and in November, 1826, the State Legislature authorized a lottery, for the purpose of raising $35,000 to complete the monuments. The funds were accumulated very slowly, and it was finally resolved to erect one monument, to be called the "Greene and Pulaski Monument." The structure here delineated is of Georgia marble upon a granite base, and was completed in 1829. The lottery is still in operation, and since this monument was completed has realized a little more than $12,000.—Bancroft's Census and Statistics of Savannah, 1848. The second monument, a beautiful work of art, will soon be erected in Chippewa Square. Launitz, the sculptor, of New York, is intrusted with its construction.
* See M'Calfs History of Georgia, note, i., 34.
Oglethorpe's Colonial Plan.—Charter for Georgia.—First Emigrants.—Interview with the Indian King.
of England. * He instituted an inquiry into their condition, which resulted in the conviction that their situation would be more tolerable in the position of a military colony, acting as a barrier between the Carolinians and their troublesome neighbors, than in the moral contamination and physical miseries of prison life.
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The class of persons whom he designed to transplant to America were not wicked criminals, but chiefly insolvent debtors. Oglethorpe also proposed to make the new colony an asylum for the persecuted Protestants of Germany and other Continental states, and in this religious idea he included the pious thought of spiritual benefit to the Indian tribes. The Earl of Shaftesbury (the fourth bearing that title) and other influential men warmly espoused the scheme, and a general enthusiasm upon the subject soon pervaded the nation. A royal charter was obtained in 1732 for twenty-one years; ** large sums were subscribed by individuals; and in the course of two years, Parliament voted one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in support of the scheme. ****
Oglethorpe volunteered to act as governor of the new colony, and to accompany the settlers to their destination. Accordingly, in November, 1732, he embarked with one hundred and twenty emigrants, and in fifty-seven days arrived off the bar of Charleston. He was warmly welcomed by the Carolinians, and on the thirteenth of January he sailed for Port Royal. While the colonists were landing, Oglethorpe, with a few followers, proceeded southward, ascended the Savannah River to the high bluff, and there selected a spot for a city, the capital of the future state. With the Yamacraw Indians, half a mile from this bluff, dweltTomo Chichi, the grand sachem of the Indian confederacy of that region. Oglethorpe and the chief both desired friendly relations; and when the former invited the latter to his tent,Tomo Chichicame, bearing in his hand a small buffalo skin, appropriately ornamented, and addressed Oglethorpe in eloquent and conciliatory terms. (v) Friendly rela-
* In 1728, Oglethorpe's attention was drawn to the condition of debtors in prison by visiting a gentleman confined in the Fleet Jail, who was heavily ironed and harshly treated. He obtained a parliamentary commission to inquire into the state of debtor-prisoners throughout England, of which he was made chairman. They reported in 1729, and efforts at reform were immediately made. The most popular proposition was that of Oglethorpe, to use the prison materials for founding a new state in America.
** This charter was unlike all that had preceded it. Instead of being given for purposes of private advantage, as a money speculation, it was so arranged that the administrators of the affairs of the new colony could derive no profit from it whatever; they acted solely "in trust for the poor." It was purely a benevolent scheme. They were to manage the affairs of the colony for twenty-one years, after which it was to revert to the crown. In honor of the king, who gave the scheme his hearty approval, the territory included within the charter was called Georgia. The seal of the new province bore a representation of a group of silk- worms at work, with the motto "Not for themselves, but for others."
*** James Edward Oglethorpe was born in Surrey, England, on the twenty-first of December, 1698. He entered the army at an early age, and served under Prince Eugene as his aid-de-camp. He was for many years a member of Parliament, and while in that position successfully advocated a scheme for colonizing Georgia. He founded Savannah in 1733. In prosecution of his benevolent enterprise, he crossed the ocean several times. He performed a good deal of military service in Georgia and Florida. He returned to England in 1743, and was married in 1744. In 1745, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier in the British army, and in 1747 to major general. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland, against the Pretender, during 1745. When General Gage went to England in 1775, the supreme command of the British army in North America was offered to Oglethorpe. His merciful conditions did not please ministers, and General Howe received the appointment. He died at Grantham Hall, on the thirtieth of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years, and was buried in Grantham Church, Essex, where his tomb bears a poetic epitaph.
**** Graham, iii., 180-184.
* (v) "Here," said the chief, "is a little present; I give you a Buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an Eagle, which I desire you to accept, because the Eagle is an emblem of speed, and the Buffalo of strength. The English are swift as the bird, and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they flew over vast seas to the uttermost parts of the earth; and like the latter, they are so strong that nothing can withstand them. The feathers of an Eagle are soft, and signify love; the Buffalo's skin is warm, and signifies protection; therefore, I hope the English will love and protect our little families."
Founding of Savannah.—Progress of the Colony.—Methodists.—Defenses against the Spaniards.
tions were established, and on the twelfth of February1732the little band of settlers came from Port Royal and landed at the site of the future city of Savannah.
For almost a year the governor lived under a tent stretched upon pine boughs, while the streets of the town were laid out, and the people built their houses of timber, each twenty-four by sixteen feet in size.
9732
In May following, a treaty with the Indian chiefs of the country was held; and on the first of June, it was signed, by which the English obtained sovereignty over the lands of the Creek nation, as far south as the St. John's, in Florida. Such was the beginning of one of the original thirteen states of our confederacy.
Within eight years after the founding of Savannah, twenty-five hundred emigrants had been sent out to Georgia, at an expense of four hundred thousand dollars. * Among these were one hundred and fifty Highlanders, well disciplined in military tactics, who were of essential service to Oglethorpe. Very strict moral regulations were adopted; ** lots of land, twenty-five acres each, were granted to men for military services, and every care was exercised to make the settlers comfortable. Yet discontent soon prevailed, for they saw the Carolinians growing rich by traffic in negroes; they also saw them prosper commercially by trade with the West Indies. They complained of the Wesleyans as too rigid, and these pious Methodists left the colony and returned home. Still, prosperity did not smile upon the settlers, and a failure of the scheme was anticipated.
Oglethorpe, who went to England in 1734, returned in 1736, with three hundred emigrants. A storm was gathering upon the southern frontier of his domain. The Spaniards at St. Augustine regarded the rising state with jealousy, and as a war between England and Spain was anticipated, vigilance was necessary. Oglethorpe resolved to maintain the claim of Great Britain south to the banks of the St. John's, and the Highlanders, settled at Darien, volunteered to aid him. With a few followers, he hastened in a scout-boat to St. Simon's Island, where he laid the foundations of Frederica, and upon the bluff near by he constructed a fort oftabby*** the ruins of which may still be seen there. He also caused forts to be erected at Augusta, Darien, on Cumberland Island, and near the mouth of the St. Mary's and St. John's. Perceiving these hostile preparations, the Spanish authorities at St. Augustine sent commissioners to confer with Oglethorpe. They demanded the evacuation of the whole of Georgia, and even of the region north of the Savannah to St. Helena Sound. This demand was accompanied by a menace of war in the event of non-compliance. Thus matters stood for several months.
In the winter of 1736—7, Oglethorpe again went to England, where he received the commission of brigadier general, with a command extending over South Carolina as well as
* Among those who went to Georgia during this period were John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist sect. Also in 1733, quite a large body of Moravians, on the invitation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, left the Old Continent for the New, and pitched their tents near Savannah, after a long voyage. They soon made their way up the Savannah to a beautiful stream, where they settled down permanently, and called the creek and their settlement, Ebenezer, a name which they still bear. Whitfield came in 1740, and established an orphan-house at Savannah. He sustained it for a while, by contributions drawn from the people of the several provinces by his eloquence; but when he was asleep in the soil of New England, it failed. All Christians were admitted to equal citizenship, except Roman Catholics; they were not allowed a residence there.
** The importation of rum was prohibited, and, to prevent a contraband trade in the article, commercial intercourse with the West Indies was forbidden. The importation of negroes was also forbidden.
*** Tabby is a mixture of lime with oyster-shells and gravel, which, when dry, form a hard rocky mass.
**** This is from a sketch made by W. W. Hazzard, Esq., in 1851. Mr. Hazzard writes: "These ruins stand on the left bank or bluff of the south branch of the Alatamaha River, on the west side of St. Simon's Island, where the steamers pass from Savannah to Florida." This fort was a scene of hostilities during the war of the Revolution, and also that of 1812; and is one of the most interesting military relics of our country. Mr. Hazzard states that, in his field in the rear of it, his men always turn up "bomb-shells and hollow shot whenever they plow there." The whole remains are upon his plantation at West Point.
Expedition against St. Augustine.—Return of Oglethorpe to England.—Georgia a Royal province.
Georgia. There he remained a year and a half, when he returned to his colony with a regiment of six hundred men to act against the Spaniards. England declared war against Spain in the latter part of 1739, and Oglethorpe immediately planned an expedition against St. Augustine. The St. Mary's was then considered (as it remains) the boundary between Georgia and Florida. Over that line Oglethorpe marched in May, 1740, with four hundred of his regiment, some Carolinians, and a large body of friendly Indians. He captured a Spanish fort within twenty-five miles of St. Augustine. A small fortress, within two miles of that place, was surrendered on his approach, but a summons to give up the town was answered by defiant words. The invaders maintained a siege for some time, when the arrival of re-enforcements for the garrison, and the prevalence of sickness in the camp, obliged them to withdraw and return to Savannah.July, 1740
In 1742, the Spaniards invaded Georgia. A fleet of thirty-six sail, with more than three thousand troops from Havana and St. Augustine, entered the harbor of St. Simons,July 16, 1742and a little above the town of the same name, erected a battery of twenty guns. Oglethorpe, with eight hundred men, exclusive of Indians, was then on the island. He withdrew to his fort at Frederica, and anxiously awaited re-enforcements from Carolina. He skirmished successfully with attacking parties, and arranged for a night assault upon the enemy's battery. A deserter (a French soldier) defeated his plan; but the sagacity of Oglethorpe used the miscreant's agency to his subsequent advantage, by bribing a Spanish prisoner to carry a letter to the deserter, containing information that a British fleet was about to attack St. Augustine. Of course the letter was handed to the Spanish commander, who arrested the Frenchman as a spy. The intelligence contained in Oglethorpe's letter alarmed the garrison, and the Spaniards determined to assail the English immediately, and then return to St. Augustine as speedily as possible. On their march to the attack of Frederica, they fell into an ambuscade. Great slaughter ensued, and they retreated precipitately. The place of conflict is called Bloody Marsh to this day. On their retreat, by water, they attacked Fort William, at the southern extremity of Cumberland Island, but were repulsed with loss. The expedition was disastrous to the Spaniards in every particular, and the commander was tried by a court-martial at Havana, and dismissed from the service in disgrace.
After ten years of service in and for the colony of Georgia, Oglethorpe returned to England, and his feet never again pressed the soil of America. His rule had been chiefly military. A civil government was now established,1743under the control of a president and council, who were instructed to administer it as the trustees should dictate. Prosperity did not yet gladden the settlers, and the colony had a sickly existence. At length the moral and commercial restrictions began to be evaded; slaves were brought from Carolina, and hired first for a few years, and then for a hundred years, or during life. This was equivalent to a purchase, and was so considered by the parties; for a sum, equal to the value of the slave, was paid in advance. Finally, slave ships came directly to Savannah from Africa; slave labor was generally introduced, and Georgia, like Carolina, became a planting state. In 1752, the trustees, wearied with the complaints of the colonists, resigned the charter into the hands of the king, and from that period until the war of the Revolution, Georgia was a royal province. * When the treaty of Paris in 1763 guarantied, as far as possible, general peace in America, the province, for the first time, began to flourish and take an important place among the Anglo-American colonies; and in the hostilities against the Indians on the frontiers its people performed their part well in furnishing provisions and men for the armies.
The inhabitants of Georgia first began to feel the hand of British taxation, when, in 1767, Governor Wright communicated his instructions from the king to require implicit obe-
* John Reynolds was the first royal governor. He was appointed in 1754. and was succeeded in 1757 by Henry Ellis. Sir James Wright, who was the last royal governor of Georgia, succeeded Ellis in 1760, and held the office until 1776.
Political Agitation.—Committee of Correspondence.—Movements of the Sons of Liberty.—Their names
dience to the Mutiny Act. * They were compelled to acquiesce, but it was with reluctance They had not realized the practical iniquity of the Stamp Act; and when, in 1768, the Assembly at Savannah appointed Dr. Franklin an agent to attend to the interests of the colony in Great Britain, they had no formal special complaint to make, nor difficulties with government for him to adjust. They generally instructed him to use efforts to have the acts of Parliament repealed, which were offensive to all the colonies. To a circular letter from the speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly,1768proposing a union of the colonies, an answer of approval was returned. In 1770,Feb, 1770the Legislature spoke out boldly against the oppressive acts of the mother country, by publishing a Declaration of Rights, similar in sentiment to that of the "Stamp Act Congress" at New York. Governor Wright was displeased, and viewing the progress of revolutionary principles within his province with concern, he went to England1771to confer with ministers. He remained there about a year and a half. During his absence, James Habersham, president of the council, exercised executive functions.
The republicans of Georgia had become numerous in 1773, and committees of correspondence were early formed, and acted efficiently. A meeting of the friends of liberty was called in Savannah in the autumn of that year, but Sir James Wright, supported by a train of civil officers, prevented the proposed public expression of opinion. The wealthy feared loss of property by revolutionary movements, while the timid trembled at the thought of resistance to royal government. Selfishness and fear kept the people comparatively quiet for a while. In the mean time, a powerful Tory party was organizing in South Carolina and in Georgia, and emissaries were sent by the governors of these provinces among the Indians on the frontiers, to prepare them to lift the hatchet and go out upon the war-path against the white people, if rebellion should ensue. Such was the condition of Georgia when called upon to appoint representatives in the Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia in 1774. Half encircled by fierce savages, and pressed down by the heel of strongly-supported royal power in their midst, the Republicans needed stout hearts and unbending resolution. These they possessed; and in the midst of difficulties they were bold, and adopted measures of co-operation with the other colonies in resistance to tyranny.
On the fourteenth of July,1774the Sons of Liberty were requested to assemble at the liberty pole at Tondee's tavern, ** in Savannah, on Wednesday, the twenty-seventh instant, in order that publie matters may be taken under consideration, and such otherconstitutional measurespursued as may then appear most eligible." *** The call was signed by Noble W. Jones (who in 1780 was a prisoner in Charleston), Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, and George Walton. A meeting was accordingly held at the watch-house in Savannah.July 27, 1774where letters from Northern committees were read, and a committee to draft resolutions was appointed. **** These proceedings were published, and the governor, alarmed at the progress of rebellion around him, issued a countervailing proclamation.AugustHe called upon the people to discountenance these seditious men and measures, and menaced the disobedient with the penalties of stern British law.
On the tenth of August another meeting was held, when it was resolved to concur with their sister colonies in acts of resistance to oppression. After strongly condemning the Boston Port Bill, they appointed a committee to receive subscriptions for the suffering peo-
* A proviso of this act, as we have elsewhere noticed, required the colonists to provide various necessaries lor soldiers that might be quartered among them.
** The first liberty-pole was erected in Savannah, on the fifth of June, 1775, in front of Peter Tondee's tavern. His house stood upon the spot now (1849) occupied by Smet's new stores.
*** M'Call, ii., 16.
**** John Glenn was chosen chairman of the meeting. The following-named gentlemen were appointed the committee to prepare the resolutions: John Glenn, John Smith, Joseph Clay, John Houstoun, Noble W. Jones, Lyman Hall, William Young, Edward Telfair, Samuel Farley, George Walton, Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Jonathan Cochran, George M'Intosh, Sutton Banks, William Gibbons, Benjamin Andrew, John Winn, John Stirle, Archibald Bullock, James Seriven, David Zubley, Henry Davis Bourguin, Elisha Butler, William Baker, Parminus Way, John Baker, John Mann, John Benefield, John Stacey, and John Morel. These were the leading Sons of Liberty at Savannah in 1774.
Contributions for Boston.—Tory Influence.—Whig Boldness.—Spiking of Cannon.—Tar and Feathers.
ple of that city, and within a few hours after the adjournment of the meeting, five hundred and seventy-five barrels of rice were contributed and shipped for Massachusetts. The governor assembled his friends at the court-house a few days afterward, and their disapprobation of the conduct of the Republicans was expressed in strong terms. Agents were sent throughout the province to obtain the signatures of the people to a printed denunciation of the Whigs; and by means of menaces and promises, an apparent majority of the inhabitants declared in favor of royal rule. * So powerfully did the tide of opposition against the Whigs flow for a while, that they did not appoint delegates to the Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in September, and Georgia was not represented in that first Federal Republican council, ** yet they heartily approved of the measure, and by words and actions nobly responded to that first great resolution, adopted by the Continental Congress on the eighth of October, 1774, *** which approved of the resistance of Massachusetts.
The Republicans continued to assemble during the winter of 1774—5, and in May following they determined to anticipate an act on the part of Governor Wright similar to that of Gage at Boston. Accordingly, on the night of the eleventh of May,1775six of the members of the Council of Safety, **** and others, broke open the magazine, (v) took out the powder, sent a portion of it to Beaufort, South Carolina, and concealed the remainder in their garrets and cellars. The governor offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the apprehension of the offenders, but the secret was never revealed till the patriots used the powder in defense of their liberties.
On the first of June, Governor Wright and the Loyalists of Savannah prepared to celebrate the king's birth-day. On the night of the second, some of the leading Whigs spiked the cannon on the battery, and hurled them to the bottom of the bluff. Nineteen days afterward, a meeting was called for the purpose of choosing a committee to enforce the requirements of theAmerican Association, put forth by the Congress of 1774. (vi) The first victim to his temerity in opposing the operations of the committee was a man named Hopkins. He ridiculed the Whigs, and they, in turn, gave him a coat of tar and feathers, and paraded him in a cart through the town for four or five hours. About this time, a letter from Governor Wright to General Gage was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charles-
* The only newspaper in the province (the Georgia Gazette, established in 1762) was under the control of Governor Wright, and through it he disseminated much sophistry, and sometimes falsehoods among the people.
** The committees of St. John's parish convened on the ninth of February, 1775, and addressed a circular letter to the committees of other colonies, asking their consent to the reception of a representative in Congress from that particular parish. Encouraged by the answer they received, they met again on the twenty-first of March, and appointed Dr. Lyman Hall to represent them. When he went to Philadelphia, he took with him, from Sunbury, one hundred and sixty barrels of rice, and two hundred and fifty dollars, as a present to the people of Boston.
*** The whole record of the proceedings of Congress on that day is as follows: "Saturday, October 8, 1774.—The Congress resumed the consideration of the letter from Boston, and, upon motion, Resolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late Acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case, all America ought to support them in their opposition." The proceedings of that one day should be written in brass and marble; for the resolution then adopted was the first Federal gauntlet of defiance cast at the feet of the British monarch. The eighth of October, 1774, should be placed by the side of the fourth of July, 1776, as one of the most sacred days in the calendar of Freedom.
**** These were Noble Wimberly Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, and John Milledge.
* (v) The magazine was at the eastern extremity of the town. It was sunk about twelve feet under the ground, inclosed with brick, and secured by a door in such a way that the governor did not consider a guard necessary.
* (vi) This committee consisted of sixteen leading men of Savannah, among whom was Samuel (afterward General) Elbert, and George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. M'Call (ii., 45) says that, after the meeting adjourned, "a number of gentlemen dined at Tondee's tavern, where the Union flag was hoisted upon the liberty-pole, and two pieces of artillery were placed under it." The Union flag, of thirteen red and white stripes, was not adopted until the first of January, 1776, when it was first unfurled in the American camp, near Boston.
Intercepted Letter.—Seizure of Powder.—Imprisonment of the Governor.—His Escape.—A Traitor.
ton. It contained a request for Gage to send some British troops to suppress the rebellious spirit of the Georgians. *